Unexpected
by CrisStarlight
Summary: What if, to use the DNA resequencer, Eobard Thawne needed the donor alive? Then, it's just his luck that Harrison Wells died in the car crash.
1. Chapter 1

So maybe he should have thought this through a little more carefully.

Eobard Thawne raised a confused eyebrow at the deceased scientist in the driver seat. That had certainly not been the desired outcome. Note to self: the cars in this era flip easily.

Well, wasn't this the greatest day ever? What was he supposed to do now, exactly?! He needed the other person to be alive in order to use the DNA Resenquencer, he needed STAR Labs to be in functioning order if the Flash was ever going to exist, and he needed the Flash if he was to get back to his own time... God, how he hated temporal mechanics!

A pained moan interrupted his train of thought. In the passenger seat, blood dripping from her forehead, Tess Morgan began to stir. Her eyes, unfocused at first, opened wide when she saw her beloved Harrison hanging upside down, her mouth forming a scream before her brain could fully process the situation.

"Oh… Harrison!"

Her panicked gaze landed on the stranger in front of the car and her hands flailed, helplessly.

"Help! Can't you see he's… Oh, god!"

Her voice failed into a sob, and, in her despair, she grabbed Harrison's hand, repeating his name, senselessly.

The gears in Eobard's head began to turn. It's true, he needed STAR Labs, but it was also true that the laboratories had two founders and he could use any one of them in his plans.

Tess barely registered as a pair of strong hands pulled her out of the car. The physical pain she felt had nothing on the hole that had seemingly been drilled into her chest and she stared into the stranger's face, her eyes teary, helpless and afraid.

"Who are you?", she asked through her daze.

Eobard looked into her scared face and, for a moment, felt a fleeting feeling of pity that he'd have to sacrifice a woman so beautiful.

"My name is Eobard Thawne, but that name doesn't matter. Not anymore. It won't matter for many years. The only thing that really matters is who you are: Tess Morgan".

Tess blinked and tried desperately to clear her head. "What are you talking about?", she asked. Maybe she had a concussion. Maybe he wasn't making any sense. Maybe this was all a nightmare. "I don't understand…"

"In year 2020, you and your… husband, Harrison Wells, successfully launched a particle accelerator that changed the course of history. I need it to happen a bit sooner if I'm going to get back". He thought about the years he'd have to live as a woman. "Much sooner".

Sirens sounded in the distance and Eobard readied the resenquencer.

"You see, I'm sorry, but they're not coming to save you. They're coming to save me".

Then, without a second thought into the matter, he plugged the device into her and a most unpleasant sensation took over. His limbs behaved as if they wanted to sink back into his skeleton and his skin boiled. When it all was over, only a woman and a corpse remained.

Now all he had to do was hide the body and wait for someone to come to the couple's rescue. Eobard looked down at his feminine arms with distaste. Ugh, the things he had to do for the sake of the plan. He supposed it was his own fault, though. This day just kept getting better and better.

 **Author note:** _I am Brazilian, so tips and corrections to my English are more than welcome. :) Please review if you have the time!_


	2. Chapter 2

The night the lightning bolt had struck, Barry Allen had stood in the crowd looking up at Tess Morgan, his idol, as she gave her speech. There was an expression of pure, unadulterated adoration on his face that Eobard would have been unable to miss if he'd tried. It was kind of flattering and disturbing at the same time, the way Barry blushed as Tess' eyes landed on him for the smallest of moments before moving on to someone else in the crowd.

Mr. Allen seemed to be quite the bright young scientist, though it wasn't without a bit of amusement that Eobard had noted a bit of a fixation on his female persona.

If he ever got back to his timeline, he'd never let his version Barry Allen live this down. Then again, that would mean he'd have to admit to the last 15 years… Maybe he should keep it to himself, after all.

oOo

Eobard had a lenghty internal debate about whether pretending to be in a wheelchair would be in his best interest or not. It's true, it'd make it easier for him to hide the tachyon device later on, but it would also drive him completely insane. Was it not enough that he had to deal with periods and hormonal imbalances, he wanted to do it all while unable to get up?

Hell was supposed to be a dead people thing.

It wasn't as if people didn't already see Tess Morgan as a pariah, anyway, what with the tragic loss of her one true love and all. And he would NOT let Barry perceive him as female during their next encounter in the battlefield. He was Eobard Thawne, after all, and Barry'd better remember it.

In the end, logic won out. He didn't have a suitable replacement, so the wheelchair would have to do… What was the expression? Fuck his life.

Maybe he could kill a few strangers every morning to relieve his frustration.

 **Author note:  
** _Ilariamoonie, thank you for your kind review. :)_ I don't know if this was what you expected, since I'm kinda waiting to get into the whole Eobard-and-his-female-body thing, but I hope you like it! _I can't reply to you directly, since you're a guest._


	3. Chapter 3

Lady Gaga was playing, Barry registered as his eyes began to flutter. Poker Face. He liked that song, but the voices around him seemed to know that already.

Something nagged at the back of his mind. There had been a storm, the particle accelerator blew up, a flash of light…

Barry sat upright with a start.

"Oh… My god!", he heard a male voice say.

"He's up!"

The next second, a woman was flashing lights at his face and checking his vitals. He would have sunk back into the bed had he not been so intent in getting out of it. The lights were too bright, the sounds were too loud, everyone was talking at once.

"Whoa, whoa. Relax! Everything is okay, man. You're at STAR Labs.", said the guy to his right in a soothing tone.

"STAR Labs…", he repeated. Questions poped into his mind. What the hell would he be doing there? What was going on? Why was that woman examining him? "Who are you?"

"I'm Cisco Ramon, this is Caitlin. Dr. Snow", said Cisco, pinning the woman with an mildly annoyed expression.

"I need you to urinate in this", Dr. Snow said, practically shoving a specimen cup in his face.

"Not this second!", countered Cisco.

Barry shook his head and got up, trying to put some distance between him and the other two.

"Wait, what is happening?! What is going on?", he asked, confused and a little exaperated.

"You were hit by lightning, dude", Cisco said, his expression about as friendly as it could possibly get in this kind of situation. The memory of a bright light came to the forefront of Barry's mind and his gaze flickered between the two people in from of him. Neither of them seemed to be pranking him and he turned away, trying to take it in.

Then, he saw himself in one of the monitors.

"Lightning… gave me abs?", he wondered out loud, his hand touching his stomach and feeling the muscles he was pretty sure he'd never had before.

"Your muscles should have attrofied, but instead they are in a cronical and unexplained state of celular regeneration", said Caitlin, lightly pinching his arms and shoulders.

"Come here. Have a seat", said Cisco, rescuing him from the doctor's probing once more. "You were in a coma".

What?

"For how long?", asked Barry a crease of worry on his forehead.

"Nine months", a voice answered, and he turned his head, surprised at the familiarity of it. There, standing with her back to the wall, was none other than Tess Morgan herself. His chin dropped.

Was that an wheelchair?

And, wait… He didn't have a shirt on! Barry felt a blush coming on despite himself. That was just great! He finally got to meet his idol, the most amazing woman in the freaking planet and he was sitting there half naked and gaping like an idiot.

"Welcome back, Mr. Allen. We've a lot to discuss", she said with a gentle smile.


	4. Chapter 4

The walk down the corridor in which Dr. Morgan told Barry about his coma was the most surreal experience of his life. On the one hand, he just wanted to be one of those crazy fans and beg for her autograph while proclaiming his undying admiration. On the other, the circuntances didn't seem to be the most appropriate or even cheerful, for that matter.

"It's hard to believe I'm here! I've always wanted to meet you face to face", he said before he could stop himself.

A gentle laughter scaped Dr. Morgan's lips as she tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

"Well, you certainly seemed willing to go through great lenghts to do it, Mr. Allen", she said, her expression becoming suddenly somber. "STAR Labs has not been operational since FEMA categorized us as a level 4 hazardous location. Seventeen people died that night. Many more were injured, including myself", she gestured at the wheelchair.

They came to a stop before the wreckage that was the accelerator ring.

"Jesus!". Barry thought he'd only seem stuff like that in post-apocalyptic videogames. "What happened?!"

"Nine months ago, the particle accelerator went online exactly as planned for 45 minutes. I had achieved my life's dream and then… And then was an anomally. The electron volts became unmeasurable, the ring under us popped, energy from the denotation was thrown into the sky, and that, in turn, seeded a storm cloud…".

"Which created a lighting bolt, that struck me", completed Barry. His head was spinning.

"That's right", said Dr. Morgan in a small voice. "I was… recovering, myself, when I heard about you".

Her face became sad and Barry put a hand on her shoulder in what he hoped was a conforting gesture. In all of her public appearances, she had never been anything other than charismatic or matter of factly. Seeing her so vulnerable was upsetting.

Dr. Morgan, looked from his hand to him with a puzzled expression, but she didn't push it away.

"What happened?", he asked. This time reffering to the wheelchair and hoping to God he wasn't being tactless.

Dr. Morgan looked away, biting her lip, and the words came haltingly.

"It seems that the same phenomenon that affected you has not left me undisturbed. Movement comes and goes, really. It never stays long enough or with enough… Stability that I can afford to get out of this chair", she said in a bitter tone of voice and then seemed to compose herself. Barry removed his hand from her shoulder and the pair started to make their way back to the lab Barry had woken in. "Anyway, I heard about you because the hospital you were in was undergoing power outtages everytime you went into cardiac arrest. That was, in fact, a misdiagnosis, since, you see, you weren't flatlining. Your heartbeat was too fast for the EKG to register. As you can imagine, I'm not exactly winning any popularity contests around Central City right now, but Detective West and his daughter allowed me to bring you here in order to stabilize you".

Barry blinked. Oh my God, Iris and Joe!

"Iris?", he asked, his heart skipping a beat.

"Iris. Yes", said Dr. Morgan with a nod. "She came to see you quite often".

"She talks a lot", interjected Caitlin, handing Dr. Morgan a cup.

"Also, she's hot", said Cisco.

"Well, have any of you warned them I'm awake?", Barry asked, running a hand through his hair in agitation, looking at all the ocupants of the room in turn.

"Not exactly. No", said Cisco, looking ashamed that the thought hadn't occurred to him.

"I need to go!", said Barry, heading for the exit.

"You can't!", protested Caitlin.

Before he could get out of range, Dr. Morgan grabbed his hand. Barry hesitated, looking back at her.

"She's right. Now that you're are awake, we need to run some tests", she said. "You are still going through changes, there is so much that we don't know".

"I'm fine", said Barry. "Honestly. I feel normal. Thank you for saving my life".

"Really?!", Dr. Snow said, eyeing him incredulously.

"This isn't just about you, Barry", Dr. Morgan said, exasperated and running her free hand through her hair. "I understand it's too much to ask that you withdraw from seeing your loved ones as soon as possible, but please consider. In your cells and their spectacular hability for regeneration may lie the cure for several injuries and diseases. And yes, I realise it's… self-serving of me to say that, since it's advancement that may as well get me on my feet again or buy my redemption from the accident Central City will never forget", her face contorted into a frown and she looked away for a second. "You can't blame me for dreaming".

Barry blinked, speechless for a moment. He felt awful, his stomach dropping as if he had just eaten a bag of stones. He sighed.

"Ok, so I can come back for tests. After I've seen Joe and Iris and got a notion of how messed up is my life, exactly. In a few days, then, maybe?". A little voice in the back of his mind was protesting. The voice died when he found himself on the receiving end of Tess Morgan's smile.

"Thank you, Mr. Allen", she said, letting go of his hand.

He nodded and was already on his way out when he stopped.

"Can I keep the sweat shirt?", Barry asked, a hopeful look in his eyes. He'd been inside STAR Labs. He'd met Tess Morgan. That was so cool.

"Of course, you can keep the sweat shirt", Dr. Morgan countered, an amused gleam in her eyes.

"Okay". And, just like that, he was out the door.


	5. Chapter 5

There were some things about impersonating Tess Morgan that took Eobard some time getting used to. One of them was the amount of physical contact that had suddenly become not only socially acceptable, but socially desirable. That had its pros and its cons, of course – oh, the annoying cons. Yet, he suspected that, had he been in Harrison Wells' body, he wouldn't have been able to get away so easily with holding Barry's hand to prevent him from leaving, for instance.

What never really ceased to amuse him, however, was how powerful a weapon perceived vulnerability could be. That one took him forever to figure out, but when he did, it became his most useful tool.

Despite what the circunstances might imply, Eobard Thawne wasn't much of a liar. That meant that, in order to make himself believed, he would much rather mislead in sentences of ambiguous meaning than fabricate another version of reality. In this body, all he had to do was look vulnerable when convenient and no one asked him any questions, as long as he made sure come across as confident the rest of the time.

Oh, Barry's face when he'd told him of the tragic tale of how he'd ended in the wheelchair… He smiled to himself. Who'd believe Tess never got up from her chair, anyway? The musculature on her lower body was too defined for her to be an invalid and he always forgot he was not supposed to walk in those shoes, so the soles were constantly dirty…

Later, after his little speech about redemption, when he saw Barry Allen leave with a promise of coming back, he almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

 **Author note:** _I watched the Mentalist, so the shoe thing was a minor nitpick of mine while watching the series. xD I hope it's okay and I haven't broken suspension of disbelief by commiting the far less forgivable sin of making the story too convoluted._


	6. Chapter 6

Barry's heart had skipped a beat when Iris embraced him at Jitters that day. He'd never been so happy to see her, and that was taking into account that he'd been in love with her more than half of his life.

"Oh my god! You're awake!", she said, pulling back to look at him, her eyes glistening with tears of relief. "Why didn't STAR Labs call us?"

"I just woke up", he explained, smiling from ear to ear.

"Well, should you even be on your feet?", she asked, worried, eyeing him up and down as if looking for signs of weakness or discomfort.

"Iris, I'm okay", he said, his stomach sinking a bit. Of course the concern in her eyes would be the sisterly kind. He'd long accepted that, but it still stung.

"I watched you die, Barry", she frowned. "You kept dying, your heart kept stopping".

He took her hand and gently placed it over his heart, distraught at having caused her such pain.

"Still beating", he reassured her in a comforting tone.

"Feels really fast", she noted, looking into his eyes, and the world around him slowed down.

No, really.

Barry saw the waitress behind Iris trip and drop all her glasses as if it was a slow motion play by play, his mind reeling as Iris turned to see if her colleague was okay.

"Oh, my dad is gonna be so happy to see you! You haven't called him yet, have you?", she said, smiling knowingly at his distracted nature. He shook his head bashfully and did his best to smile back as she ran off to get her purse.

He looked at the coffe soaked spot on the floor and mentally shook himself. He was being silly. Maybe he'd imagined it. No reason to panic…

The Jitters incident turned out to be only the beginning, though.

Joe had, indeed, been very happy to see him and Barry couldn't help but silently thank him for his dedication. He'd been mildly surprised that, after nine months, he'd still had an apartment he could go to and change earlier. Had Joe been paying his rent all this time?

They might not always get along, but Joe was a good father.

"You scared the hell out of us, kid", Joe said, engulfing Barry in a bear hug the likes he'd not received in a long time.

"Yeah, it was quite a nap you took there, baby face. And you still look twelve", one of the officers quipped. He laughed.

"You look okay", said Joe, eyeing him with concern. "Are you really?"

Barry offered him a tentative smile and thought about the waitress of earlier. Joe knew him too well. Well enough to be able to tell there was something bothering him. Barry hesitated, but didn't want to worry the older man.

"Yeah", he said, and although Joe didn't look like he believed him, he was rescued from furthe questioning by a bank robbery.

"Detective West, I've got a 515 in progress at Gold City Bank. Two dead. Storm is really picking up on the south side. I'd grab your rain gear", announced a female officer.

"I'm sorry, Barry, I gotta run", Joe said, grabbing his coat.

Dead people? Would CCPD need forensics over there?

"Do you need my help?", asked Barry.

"No. You take it easy. There will be plenty for you to do once you're settled in", and then he called over his shoulder: "Let's go partner!", but, instead of Chyre, it was Detective Pretty Boy who answered. Barry tried not to look too confused. Police officers changed partners, sometimes.

"Hey, Allen! Glad to see you.", Eddie said, grinning and putting on his coat. "Hey, Iris!". Barry arched a brow. That last greeting was almost… Tender.

"Detective", Iris replied dryly. "You should go. My dad doesn't like to be kept waiting".

Eddie's smile faltered at her tone and Barry's gaze switched from one of them to the other.

"Glad you're back", Eddie said, patting him on the shoulder. Barry stared at the back of Eddie's head, suspiciously. If he didn't know better, he'd say there was something going on between those two…

His eyes landed on a memorial box. It was detective Chyre's.

"The night of the explosion, Clyde Mardon shot and killed Chyre", Iris, explained, following his gaze. "Mardon and his brother died trying to scape. Their plane crashed".

Barry heard as Iris got called away by one of the officers. He hadn't known Joe's former partner very well, so he didn't know exactly how to feel. It seemed that the explosion of the particle accelerator had taken away a lot…

"Hey, Barry. Good to see you", Barry looked up gratefully at the voice that broke him from his reverie. And then he saw it.

The criminal that was being processed grabbed the sidearm of the cop in front of him and, before Barry knew what he was doing, he had slammed the guy against the table and returned to his previous place.

"Screw you!", the guy spat at him as he was dragged away.


	7. Chapter 7

Barry Allen ended up coming back to STAR Labs much sooner than his previous guess had suggested, telling tales about how the world had seemed to slow down for him.

"I mean, besides the whole thing with the gun, the shaking in my hand afterwards was kinda hard to ignore", he said, and as he did, it seemed to escape his notice that his hands were wringing the hem of his shirt in a much faster rhythm than they were supposed to. "And then, I completely slammed against the back of a truck! I guess I was too preoccupied to remember I'd have to stop at some point…" Barry hesitated and looked at the trio of scientists in front of him. "You do believe me, right?"

Dr. Morgan perused him from over her interlaced fingers and Barry felt himself blush under her inspecting gaze. She nodded to herself.

"Cisco, can we put together the appropriate gear at the testing tracks? Caitlin, we'll need to monitor his vitals", she said.

"Alright!", said Cisco, looking as if Christmas had come early. Caitlin, on the other hand, gave her boss a dubious look and only went about her task after receiving a nod of encouragement.

Dr. Morgan flashed Barry her brightest smile.

"I'm looking foward to seeing what you can do, Mr. Allen".

oOo

The racing outfit they had given him was ridiculously snug and he was reluctant to leave the changing booth in it.

"At least you will be running so fast that no one will see it", Cisco told Barry with an apologetic smile. "Because, see, you thought the world was slowing down, but it wasn't. You were moving so fast it only looked like everyone else was standing still. Dr. Morgan will be monitoring your energy output, and Caitlin, your vitals".

"And what do you do?", he asked as Cisco guided him to the track.

"I make the toys, man!", the shorter man said, grinning. He produced a circular object with a lightning bolt on it. "Check it. This is a two-way headset with a camera I've modified, typically designed to combat battlefield impulse noise, or, in your case, potential sonic booms. Which would be awesome, by the way". Barry could see his eyes shining with excitement, as he took of his helmet in order to install the device.

Dr. Snow approached him. She was always so serious, and Barry couldn't help but wonder if it was just around him or in general.

"What?", she asked, adjusting his equipment. Oops, had he been staring?

"Nothing", he answered. "I just noticed you don't smile too much".

She frowned and tucked her hair behind her ear.

"My once promissing career in bio-engeneering is over; my boss may be in a wheelchair for life; the explosion that put you in a coma also killed my fiancée… So this blank expression kinda feels like the way to go".

Barry swallowed. Dr. Morgan, Chyde, Caitlin's fiancée, him… How much loss had been caused that night? He chanced a glance at Dr. Morgan. It must be a horrible feeling, to have one's life's dream bring about so much misery, especially when you thought it would be bringing good.

Dr. Morgan looked up at him and offered an amused smile at his sheepish expression. He had to stop behaving like such a fanboy.

"Mr. Allen, while I am extremely eager to determine your full range of habilities, I do caution restraint".

"Yeah", he nodded, and adjusting the racing glasses and the helmet Cisco had just given him, took the racer stance at the pedestals that had been prepared for him.

As he ran, faster than he'd ever had before, he could feel electricity crackling in his limbs. He was impossibly fast. He was the impossible. He was lightning…

Lightning had surrounded his mother that night. There had been a man inside it. A man like him.

Barry only noticed the cannisters in the end of the track after he'd hit them.


	8. Chapter 8

Watching Barry run through those tracks for the first time was exhilarating. Eobard could feel the power of the speedforce actually coursing through the ground and into his body, even as Barry's take-off threatened to knock him off of the wheelchair. He felt a twinge of excitement. This was the making of history. It was the moment he'd read about in his textbooks as a child, it was the moment he had been planning for over a decade. It was the moment he'd first pictured in his mind as he'd traveled into the past that first time.

A smile curled his lips, and for this single isolated moment, he allowed himself to feel _proud_.

He was proud of his team. Proud of how Cisco Ramon had turned out to be so much more remarkable and confident in this timeline, proud of having saved Caitlin Snow of a horrible fate as Killer Frost and, yes, even proud of the young man running in the red suit, for whose creation he had been responsible.

The irony of that last feeling didn't escape him, after all, it was because of the Flash that pride and sense of accomplishment had become so scarce in his life. But this… This was _his_ handiwork and that was what the Scarlet Speedster had never understood. For despite all the times he had cast Eobard Thawne as a villain, The Flash had never managed to grasp that, in the grand scheme of things, Eobard had always been the one who did the most good between the two of them.

The younger Barry Allen began to shift in the racing track. Eobard could see as his stance became distracted, his thoughts far away. He wasn't going to stop before he hit the end of the track. This was going to hurt him, but Eobard didn't intervene. In the end, nothing had been forgiven and Barry Allen was to him nothing but a tool. A means to his end, albeit a bothersome one, just like the body he was occupying. No. Tess Morgan had been a genuine loss.

Watching Barry fall and hurt himself, for a change, due to his own stupidity was, in fact, immensely satisfying.


	9. Chapter 9

Barry felt like hitting his head on a wall until he lost consciousness. Instead, what he did, was run to STAR Labs and hang onto his coping mechanism: anger.

"I wasn't the only one affected by the particle accelerator explosion, was I?", he demanded. Everyone in the room turned to look at him.

 _He saw Clyde Mardon' face. It had been turned to look at him, as Barry pushed Iris out of the way, giving him a nice angle. He'd recognize those features anywhere. It was unequivocal even as Mardon sped off in a getaway car._

Dr. Morgan glanced at Caitlin and Cisco before answering. "We don't know for sure", she said, pinning him with a serious expression in her blue eyes.

 _He wondered if his heart was capable of healing as fast as his hand. He thought he'd seem something between Iris and Eddie earlier. Now, as she leaned in to kiss him outside of Jitters, he could be sure. It didn't make him feel any better. It caused him more pain than the canisters, more pain than the lightning strike. He had never and would never have a chance with her._

"You said the city was safe, that there was no residual danger", Barry shouted. "But that's not true, so what really happened that night?".

 _"Something happened to him that night. I think…", Barry had hesitated under Joe's skeptical gaze. He knew it was going to sound absurd. "I think he can control the weather. The recent robberies, they all happened during freak meteorological events", he'd reasoned. "And when I just confronted Mardon, the street was instantly enveloped in fog"._

 _Joe had looked at him like he'd snapped, an expression of sheer pity stamped on his face. It was like the return of a familiar nightmare. Just like with Iris and Eddie, knowing it was about to happen didn't prepare him for the real thing._

 _"Of course you don't believe me", Barry said bitterly. "You never believe me". Never good enough to be believed, never good enough to be the boyfriend._

A storm was forming in Dr. Morgan's blue eyes.

"Well, the accelerator went active, we all felt like heroes and then…", Barry could she her practically punch the keys in the wheelchair panel, trying to work out a frustration not unlike the one he felt. "And then it all went wrong. A dimensional barrier ruptured, unleashing unknown energies into our world. Anti-matter, dark energy, x particles…"

"Those are all theoretical", he retorted.

"And how theoretical are you?", asked Dr. Morgan, her eyes sharp and dangerous, like lightning.

 _Lightning had invaded his house that night. There had been a man inside it. No one believed him, but Barry knew what he'd seem._

Barry turned his face to look at the screen. He couldn't handle Tess Morgan's gaze, right now.

"We mapped the dispersion throughout and around Central City, but we have no way of knowing exactly what or who was exposed. We've been searching for other metahumans like yourself".

"Meta-humans?"

"That's what we're calling them", said Caitlin.

"I saw one today", spat Barry. "He's a bank robber, and he can control the weather".

"This just keeps getting cooler", he heard Cisco say, excitedly. Barry's icy stare seemed to make him reconsider.

 _"MARDON!" Barry's voice had followed the blonde man down the street, making him stop in his tracks. A car screeched to a halt near them and Clyde Mardon limped, extending his arms._

 _The fog appeared as if by magic. Almost as if it was coming out of Mardon himself. Behind Barry, a car honked and it was all he could do to move himself out of the way before the vehicle landed, upside down, the subsequent explosion killing the driver._

"This is not cool, alright?", Barry said. The image of the bodybag being carried away was still burned in his mind. "A man died. Mardon must have gotten his powers the same way I did: from the storm cloud. He is STILL out there! We have to stop him, before he hurts anyone else".

Barry turned to leave.

"Barry!", Tess Morgan's voice called him back. "That's a job for the police".

"I work for the police".

"As a forensic assistant", she remarked.

"You're responsible for this. For him", Barry pointed out. How could she be okay with letting somebody else suffer from what she'd created?

 _"What the hell were you thinking having her out here?!", Joe asked him, exasperated. There was a hint of panic in his eyes, even as he chided Iris. "And I told you: when you see danger you run the other way. You're not a cop"._

 _"Because you wouldn't let me", she'd replied._

 _"You're damn right!"_

 _Joe had always been the over-protective kind, trying to cut his losses in disasters that would never happen. Some battles, though, his daughter just wanted to fight for herself._

"What's important is you!", Dr. Morgan shouted and something in her expression made Barry stop. "Not me. I lost everything", Dr. Morgan continued, and Barry could see the loss echoed in Caitlin's face. "I lost my company, I lost my reputation, I lost my freedom. And then you broke your arm and it healed in three hours. Inside your body could be a map to a whole new world. Genetic therapies, vaccines, medicines – treasures, Barry, deep within your cells, and we can not risk losing everything because you want to go out and play hero! You're not a hero."

J _oe's face had been harsh, the way Barry hadn't seem since he was a boy, the way it always got just before he felt the urge to run away._

 _"Your father killed your mother, Barry! I am sorry, son, but I knew it, the jury knew it and now he's paying for what he did"._

"You're just a young man struck by lightning".

 _"And what I do ask now is that you, for once in your life, see things as they are"._

Hurt, Barry nodded in acknowledgement, but he didn't agree. He managed to get himself all the way to the main door before breaking out into a run, somehow feeling worse than when he'd arrived.


End file.
